“Shooting unarmed citizens is fundamentally wrong,” wrote Gov. JB Pritzker in his statement on the Rittenhouse verdict, which is pasted below.
Moment in the video when Rittenhouse shot rioter aiming a pistol at him.
That’s a lie. Pritzker should retract the statement and apologize. One had a pistol pointed at Rittenhouse at the moment Rittenhouse fired, captured in video.
More fundamentally, Pritzker knows full well that it is entirely appropriate and lawful to use a gun in self-defense when facing imminent bodily harm of any kind, which the jury rightly concluded was shown by the evidence respecting each of the three who were shot.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s statement says “we must respect the jury’s decision” but then is somehow able to say “What Kyle Rittenhouse did was reckless, dangerous, and showed an utter disregard for human life.”
That’s absurd. The charges rejected by the jury expressly included recklessly endangering safety and misuse of a dangerous weapon. If you accept the verdict you cannot claim that Rittenhouse acted recklessly or dangerously.
Both Pritzker and Lightfoot went on to express sympathy for those who were shot, all of whom had ugly criminal records. They expressed no sympathy whatsoever for countless victims of the riots.
Lightfoot added, “Let us also remember and pray for Jacob Blake,” who was shot by Kenosha police, sparking the riots.
But both the local authorities and the U.S. Justice Department under the Biden Administration concluded that there is no basis for any charges against the police. That’s because Blake, for whom a warrant was already issued, resisted arrest with a knife.
The Rittenhouse affair occurred because the government failed in its fundamental duty to keep the streets safe and because of constant lies about the Blake shooting by many politicians and most of the corporate media. If further unrest occurs, blame them again — including Pritzker and Lightfoot — for incitement.
The full statements by Pritzker and Lightfoot are below.
Pritzker’s statement:
Lightfoot’s statement:
